I 






NATURAL 
BLUE PRI NTS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE COSMOS CLUB, 
JANUARY 23rd., 1915 



i 



By Albert Widdis. 

DETROIT, MICHI G.A N 




^^a^^^^s^a^ajfaf^s^ppsps=^^^l 






6 ^ 



By transfer 
The White House. 



Natural Blue Prints 

By Albert Widdis. 



It is maintained, that this earth is a general 
factory, heated, lighted, ventilated and stored 
with raw material awaiting the elaboration of 
man — the operative — and that the disorder, con- 
fusion and suffering in the world is due to the 
fact that he, although possessing the power to 
do so, has not yet read the blue prints prepared 
for him by the Great Architect. 

It is maintained, that upon everything is writ- 
ten its purpose and .that this writing constitutes 
the blue prints, that is, nature's statutes or laws 
for the guidance of mankind upon the face of the 
earth and in the universe at large. Instead of 
shouting orders from the clouds or furnishing 
paper blue prints, such as we are familiar with, 
to the operatives in this great general factory, 
the Creator adopted the unique plan of impress- 
ing upon everything its purpose. Inasmuch as 
these written purposes, blue prints, impressions, 
natural statutes or laws, by whichever name 
they may be called, can be read by us and our 
successors upon this sphere, it is evident, that, 
to say the least, a vast amount of shouting and 
paper is saved by this unparalleled arrangement. 
It is equally evident that inasmuch as man has 
been given the power to read these blue prints, 
that the Creator will not read them for him or 



Natural Blue Prints 



shout his orders from the clouds ; as a corollary, 
it is equally evident that the disorder and suf- 
fering in this world will continue until man 
himself reads them and applies himself to them ; 
and that many of his prayers are made in vain. 

It is maintained, that man was not called into 
the factory until everything was in readiness for 
him to proceed with his work, for the reason 
that there was before that time nothing that he 
could do. In fact, he could not have inhaled the 
gases floating about during the formative period 
of this factory, and lived. Man, in all his powers 
and necessities is an exact counterpart or com- 
plement of the more general plan previously 
formulated and executed when the earth was 
built. It is maintained, therefore, that man's 
effort at law making, and religion making, ex- 
cept wherein he has read and paralleled these 
blue prints of Nature, have been and are, vain. 
It is apparent, now, that his duty requires him 
to at least, gradually discontinue his efforts 
along these lines and take nature into his confi- 
dence. The basic truth, namely, "Upon every- 
thing is written its purpose" should be Article 
I, in his political constitution, and with that 
truth ever in mind, he should pass laws in har- 
mony with it for the purpose of enforcing its 
truths upon mankind, mindful of the probability 
that at some future day nature will receive such 
full confidence of mankind in general that even 
this limited law-making will be unnecessary. 

Man is an evolving creature, physically and 



Natural Blue Prints 



mentally. A survey of the past shows very 
clearly that his evolution, that is, physical and 
mental unfolding and progression, have taken 
rapid strides upon every occasion when he has 
individually or collectively taken nature into his 
confidence. His dark days have been, so to 
speak, artificial or man-made days. We can see 
the horizon of his dark morning of life ever 
brightening as some noble truth-seeking spirit 
read into the life of mankind a page, a para- 
graph or a whole chapter in nature. The more 
he reads, the greater the brightening. Thus our 
confidence in nature has been buttressed by ex- 
perience. Whatever has been man's failures in 
the past it is now his clear duty and privilege, 
if you please, to at least gradually, tarn the 
whole matter over to nature, that is, turn our- 
selves over to her by sinking ourselves in her — 
by reading into our lives an ever-increasing num- 
ber of her chapters. For we can, at this .time, 
understand her and see that she has furnished 
us with blue prints for our guidance that are 
so legible that anyone "who runs may read." 

It is maintained, that this basic .truth, viz., 
"Upon everything is written its purpose," is a 
scientia scientiarum, a science of the sciences, a 
truth to which all other truths are subsidiary. 
It is the major premise of existence and by its 
light we see that religion and science are one. 
It implies the thinking of the Creator's thoughts 
after Him than which, nothing can be more wor- 
shipful, spiritual, useful, or beautiful. It is get- 



Natural Blue Prints 



ting "right with God." 

If you had to erect and operate a factory, say 
for the manufature of stoves, what is .the first 
thing you would do before commencing your 
work? Sensible men that you are, you would 
first formulate plans according to which the 
building was to be erected and the business of 
manufacturing carried on. In these plans you 
would provide for at least a room in which .to 
store the iron, another room for the fuel, still 
another for the moulding sand, a casting room, 
a room for cleaning the castings, and a room 
within which to assemble them. You would, in 
short, picture before your mind's eye the busy 
factory complete and anticipate every necessity 
and convenience for the proper conduct of the 
business of manufacturing stoves. Having all 
this in mind, you would prepare the blue prints, 
according to which the factory was to be built. 
Factory built, and stocked with raw material 
and fuel, what would be the next thing you/ 
would do? Sensible men that you are, you 
would consider very carefully the multitudinous 
operations that would have to be carried on to 
make stoves and then provide .the factory with 
blue prints for the direction of the operatives. 
Blue prints in the hands of operatives, you would 
consider absolutely essential. For you could not 
allow each man to follow his own caprice in the 
manufacture of these stoves. I emphasize the 
statement by saying that you would provide 
these blue prints as a matter of course. 



Natural Blue Priats 



These plans or blue prints furnished for the 
guidance of the operatives would be mere com- 
plements of the original plans according to 
which the factory was built. Next, again hav- 
ing in mind the multitudinous operations that 
would have to be carried on to make stoves, you 
would provide the factory with operatives pos- 
pessing, as a whole, the various mental and 
physical attainments that would correspond 
with the work to be done. 

But suppose that you are not so sensible as I 
give you credit for being; suppose that you did 
not trouble yourself about plans or blue prints 
for your factory and gave no thought to the 
quality of the material used in its construction, 
to the manner of its construction, the arrange- 
men of its rooms to meet the necessity and con- 
venience of the operations to be carried on, or to 
the storage of unwrought materials. What sort 
of a hodge-podge of a factory would you have? 
But suppose that into this caricature of a fac- 
tory were called a lot of nondescript men who 
knew nothing about and could not know any- 
thing about making stoves, and suppose that 
they were left to scramble for a living within its 
walls, without any plans to guide them. What 
kind of stoves would you get? Would you ex- 
pect the operatives to progress toward higher 
standards of living or retrogress? Some 
thoughtless persons charge our Creator with 
just this lack of prevision and common sense — 
a lack that you would be ashamed to confess. 



Natural Blue Prints 



Again, suppose the factory were constructed 
all right and that it was properly heated, lighted, 
ventilated and stored with raw material await- 
ing the hand of the operatives, and that into it 
are turned ten thousand men of diverse natural 
aptitude for such work, but that they fail to find 
their blue prints or working directions. Of 
course, the men wouldn't make much that looked 
like stoves. Of this we may be very sure. But 
what would they do. Let us, in our imagina- 
tion leave them to their own devices in the fac- 
tory for a time and watch developments. Ah! 
One fellow has started a gambling joint in one 
corner upstairs. And see! One of them has 
opened a booze- joint in the room below. See .the 
beautifully painted ladies that have found their 
way into the workshop! What is that noise? 
Some one shot? Yes — in the saloon — and the 
escaping villain is caught by the more orderly 
"employees" and placed in the cellar. And look, 
some of ♦them are diseased and ill and the large 
room at the farthest end of the building has 
been turned into a hospital. But look at the 
man in the coal bin. By some sort of reasoning 
he seems to have convinced himself and some 
others that he owns all the coal. He says he 
saw it first. See the fellow on the iron pile. He 
won't let anyone have any iron unless they pay 
him handsomely for it. He says he saw it first, 
and that, therefore, it is his. Such a fuss and 
hubub is going on that it is hard to make out 
head or tail to the "enterprise." 



Natural Blue Prints 



Many are searching the factory bent 
on seeing something first, so that they can make 
the others "fork over" for it. See those monopo- 
lists rake in the cash! And note the airs they 
are putting on. A few have gotten hold of nearly 
all the factory through their seeing first the 
wealth it contains. But most of them have been 
less observant and have nothing but misery. 
Just as we might have expected, some of them 
have gone insane as a result of disease or worry 
or both, and that other large room near the front 
of the building is now being used for their con- 
venience. There are about as many in this asy- 
lum as there are in the cellar. And there are 
twice as many in the hospital room as there are 
in both of the others. But what is that sonorous 
voice we hear? Oh! Some one said: "Let us 
pray." Most of them are praying. However, 
conditions don'.t improve much on that account. 
And what is that body of men in the blue print 
room doing? Listen! Oh yes — they are passing 
laws and regulations for the guidance of the 
operators — telling them how to do everything 
but make stoves, and telling them what will 
happen to them if they don't do as they are told. 
That they are in a stove factory and that they are 
there to make stoves hasn't occured to any of 
them. And they can not work out their 
destiny until they know w T hat it is. 
Truly things in this factory are in terrible dis- 
order. It would be hard to picture a more jum- 
bled and confused mass of suffering humanity. 
This is a picture of life today on this sphere. 

But see! Some one has discovered the blue 
print box and announces his discovery. "Rot," 



Natural Blue Prints 



say some, "this is no stove factory." However, 
the discoverer of the blue prints insists that 
they bear some relation to the factory and to 
the people in the factory. The plans are tried 
and found to answer every requirement. 

Let us look into the future, keeping our vision 
riveted to this factory. Gradually, very grad- 
ually , the leaven of the blue prints is working. 
The operatives, in ever increasing numbers, are 
using them. See them leaving the jail, hospital 
and asylum! The monopolists lose their 
monopolies and their "airs" at the same time. 
The expressions of misery on the faces of the 
many are changing to joy. Note particularly 
the excellent stoves they are making. And all 
this is due to the discovery of the blue prints! 

Looking back in history a few hundred years we 
see Europe quarreling over such questions as, 
Is the earth round or flat? Does the earth move 
around the sun? Or does the sun move around 
the earth? We can see Galileo and Copernicus 
and Kepler being persecuted because they dared 
enunciate what they believed .to be natural laws 
concerning these phenomena. We can see that 
of all their .tormentors ecclesiasticism is the 
worst and the most unrelenting. The holy 
fathers could brook nothing that promised to 
interfere with the established faith. Later we 
see Newton discovering and promulgating the 
law of gravitation that explained the motions of 
the sun and planets ; again we see the church up 
in arms to protect the faith and prevent any 
innovation, just as if the ark of truth could be 



Natural Blue Prints 



shaken by error. But the natural law discov- 
ered by Newyon held good, and^ the rantings, 
hysterics and persecutions of the ignorant after 
a time, subsided. Natural law came to the res- 
cue — saved the day. 

Looking again, we see alchemists, by incanta- 
tions, invocations, prayer and secret processes, 
attempting to change base metal into gold. We 
discern that the people are almost wholly ignor- 
ant of organic and inorganic chemistry ; and note 
their consequent inability to manipulate vege- 
table, animal or mineral matter. We see that 
they have no table knives, forks or spoons, and 
that they eat out of a common dish wdth their 
fingers! They have no nails or pins, wagons or 
plows; in short, they have scarcely more than 
their hands to work with. They are dragging 
out the merest existence. They are in the world 
but scarcely of it, as is their privilege. Again 
we see natural law coming to the rescue. Dalton 
of England promulgates the atomic law ; alchem- 
ists see the folly of their attempts to change iron 
and copper into gold. Their faith in incanta- 
tions receives a severe jolt. But more import- 
ant, this atomic law was found to be the key 
that unlocks the doors of undreamed-of wealth 
in matter ; and by its use people for the last cen- 
tury have been comparatively surfeited with use- 
ful and convenient things. How many of us 
here realize how much of our present comfort 
we owe to the discovery of this blue print — the 
operation of this law? There had been no tele- 
phones, no .telegraphs, phonographs, electric 



^ Natural Blue Pri nts 

motors, steam engines or railroads without a 
knowledge of this blue print ; and we would still 
be regarding earth, air, fire and water as the 
only elements. The half hour allowed for this 
paper will not permit me to portray further the 
beneficence that has followed in the .train of our 
knowledge and use of this natural law. 

Again we look and see men stretched upon 
dirty boards to which they are bound and hear 
them screaming in agony while others are per- 
forming what they call surgical operations upon 
them with dir.ty knives. There was no thought 
of disease germs as there was none of anesthesia 
to relieve the suffering- of the patient. If he sur- 
vived the terrible ordeal, it was the Lord's will ; 
if he died it was likewise the Lord's doings, in 
which their prayers and incantations, they 
thought, played an important part. The sur- 
geons of those days we see are the barbers, each 
with his advertisement consisting of the familiar 
red and white striped pole to remind possible 
patients that he was a bleeder and bandager. 
Their skill as surgeons, was hardly equal to their 
willingness to cut. But natural law comes to 
the rescue again. Anesthesia, discovered by 
Morrison, was introduced. Thanks to Pasteur, 
Koch, and other bacteriologists, patients' bodies, 
operating tables and instruments are now clean 
and antiseptic. The ancient and honorable call- 
ing of surgery and blood-letting no longer en- 
riches the barbers. Who has the pen, or the 
tongue, to properly depict the multitude of hor- 
rors saved humanity by reading these two pages 



Natural Blue Prints 11 

of natural blue prints? But let us look again 
and we discern Europe being almost depopulated 
by the Black Death. We see Bubonic Plague, 
Smallpox, Yellow Fever and Syphilis carrying 
off their millions. And note the people who are 
not stricken. Some of them are unnaturally and 
hysterically gay, believing that that frame of 
mind will ward off the evil spirit that they imag- 
ine is inflicting them. Others are sad and gloomy 
beyond description, believing that the destroyer 
is appeased at the appearance of gloom and will 
spare them. Others are exorcising or propitiat- 
ing this imagined evil spirit that is at their 
throats, in hopes that by thus putting up a fight 
against or completely surrendering to, it they 
will escape. How reading one chapter in the 
book of nature — a few pages of natural blue 
prints — has changed all this! These diseases 
have been robbed of their terrors, and epidemics 
of them are unknown in this day. 

Let us look back once more, this time to a 
point about 140 years ago. We see the kings, 
priests, vested interests and stand-patters and 
.the same enslaved people as before, excepting 
that the people are not such abject slaves as they 
were centuries previous. But they are still vic- 
tims of conservatism and stand-patism. For the 
greater part they are obliged to obey laws in the 
making of which they have no voice. That great 
idealist and natural blue print reader, Thomas 
Paine, raises his voice and proclaims to all man- 
kind that he has read in the book of nature that 



12 Natural Blue Prints 

all men are born equal and are alike 
possessed of certain inalienable rights among 
which are the right of life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness. Contemplate what 
this has meant to enslaved mankind generally, 
but particularly what it has meant to the people 
of France, to the people of the entire western 
hemisphere and even to republican China. 

Now let us look at the world today. Every- 
where we still hear priests, orthodox ministers, 
kings, vested interests and stand-patters gener- 
ally exclaiming, "Hold fast to that which is 
good," knowing full well that their dogmas, 
creeds and precepts are not true and are good 
for them only in that they are the means for 
satisfying their greed for power and money. By 
all means hold fast to that which is good, but be 
sure that .those things to which we hold fast are 
true. And then they must be good for all peo- 
ple. But the undercurrent of meaning of this 
historic slogan of these various conservatives is 
to "Hold fast." By all means "Hold fast," the 
proletariat is enjoined. When one is milking a 
cow it is bad enough to contend with flies and 
the occasional switching of the cow's tail. But 
let no man scare the cow. Therefore, down with 
the scientist. 

All through history we see this historic con- 
flict being waged between stand-patters on one 
side and a few courageous readers of nature's 
blue prints on the other. The slogan of the one 



Natural Blue Frints 13 

C3E 

has always been "Hold fast;" while the efforts 
of the other have always been directed toward 
reading nature's laws first and then reading 
them into the lives of suffering humanity. The 
history of the progress of humanity is the his- 
tory of the case that might be entitled Scientist 
versus King, Priest & Company, or, it might be 
entitled Jesus versus Ecclesiasticism. While 
there have been many so-called reformers who 
set up man-made abstractions as panaceas for 
human ills, there have been comparatively few 
real reformers. For real reformers, necessarily, 
I repeat necessarily, must be readers of nature's 
blue prints. Man can not work out his destiny 
if he knows not what it is. 

Let us consider this point for a few minutes 
longer. Today in France there are twenty-seven 
political parties, each with a man-made scheme 
for alleviating the distress of that people. In 
every other country there are man-made schemes 
and schemes advocated for a like purpose for its 
particular people. In our own country over ten 
thousand laws were passed by the legislatures of 
the different states in 1913. Who is not weary 
of controversies over high protective tariff and 
free trade? Surely our statesmen have never 
known of that which gives impetus to real prog- 
ress. Who among them is a reader of nature? 
From the dawn of history so-called statesmen 
have been chattering about laws and regulations 
for the guidance of people all unaware thafl 
law-making aside from routine is a fine art that 
transcends their utmost skill. They, to whom 
the Almighty has not entrusted the direction of 



14 Natural Blue Frints 

even .their own digestive, respiratory and circula- 
tory processes essay the role of lawmakers, for- 
ever ignorant that all, or nearly all, regulations 
necessary for the happiness of mankind were 
made before man's advent upon this globe. That 
the earth itself was made in anticipation of 
man's entry upon it and in anticipation of man's 
conducting himself as an orderly complement of 
it, has never entered their heads. And after all 
these years of so-called statesmanship, let us 
judge of the condition of affairs among men by 
referring to the Detroit Journal, published to- 
day. The following are some of the glaring 
headlines: "Fourteen shot in labor fight in 
.Jersey," "The poor, the very poor, are robbed by 
state and public service corporations," "Frozen 
girl's parents to be .taken to court," "Mlawa is 
wrecked, country devastated," "Artillery wrecks 
Polish town," "Snowfall gives work to jobless," 
" Bakers discuss bread advance," "Twenty face 
trial as outcome of mine strike war," and lastly 
"Bishops are called; will gather January 27th 
to consider coagitor for Bishop Foley." What a 
sad commentary upon man's abilities as a law- 
maker. But this is from only one paper. It can 
be multiplied by ten thousand and still not even 
suggest the extent of human trouble. In this 
country today there are approximately 240,000 
people in jail, 200,000 in insane asylums, 500,000 
in hospitals. There are upwards of one-half 
million women of the streets in the large cities. 
Eighty -five men out of a hundred die without 



Natural Blue Prints 15 

leaving enough wealth with which to pay for 
their burial. But so as not to prolong this too 
much let us be reminded that Pasteur by read- 
ing nature and discovering the process that 
bears his name, has saved — mark you, saved — 
the lives, it is estimated, of more than four mil- 
lion people. Have all the legislatures and eccle- 
siastical synods that ever convened that much 
to their combined credit? 

Is all this not a sad, very sad, commentary 
upon the regime of ecclesiastics, lawmakers and 
stand-patters generally? Surely the riches that 
have poured forth upon us when we have, so to 
speak, tapped nature by reading and following 
her laws, should inspire us with *the utmost con- 
fidence in her. Lawmaking, except that provid- 
ing for mere routine work in this great factory, 
implies the possession of infinite powers. It is 
an art the secret of which, like the secret of ex- 
istence after death, the Creator has kept. 

The poet was almost right when he said : 

The world's a book, in tolio printed all 
With God great works in letters capital ; 
Each creature is a page; and each effect 
A fair character, void of all defects. 

But as young truants toying in the schools, 
Instead of learning, learn to play the fools ; 
We gaze but on the babies and the cover, 
The gaudy flowers and edges gilded over; 
And never farther for our lesson look 
Within the volume of this various book, 



16 Natural Blue Prints 

Where learned nature rudest ones instructs, 
That by His wisdom God the world conducts. 

With the help of Sir Isaac Newton's law of 
gravitation, man has, so to speak, put the sun 
and planets in order, without any help from leg- 
islatures. With the help of Dalton's Atomic 
Law man has put things in order, and enriched 
himself beyond calculation, without the help of 
any legislative body. It remains for man to put 
himself in order; and this can be done only as 
the other reforms were accomplished, namely, 
by reading nature's blue prints and adhering to 
them. Very little assistance from law-making 
bodies is necessary — at the most merely enacting 
nature's laws, or some of them, into statutes, 
and providing for a plan of operation or regime 
for this general factory, co-operatively owned 
and co-operatively operated. 

The law of which I speak and of which I ex- 
pect so much is of all .things the easiest to com- 
prehend. It is this: "Upon everything is writ- 
ten its purpose." 

Hoping to prove to you the truth of this law I 
wish to call your attention to .the following. It 
is apparent to all that eyes were made to see 
with, that ears were made to hear with, that 
teeth were made to chew with, and that every 
other organ of our bodies, whether artery, vein, 
gland, bone or blood, each has its function to 
perform. There can be no question about their 
purposes being written upon them. This is true 



Natural Blu e Prints [7 

of all the organs of all other animal bodies. It 
is likewise true of all the organs of vegetable 
bodies, and of the bodies themselves. While .this 
is evident concerning animal and vegetable 
bodies, organic matter generally, it may not be 
so clear to all that it applies with equal force to 
and is true of all inorganic matter. It is a fact 
that upon every animal body, vegetable body, 
and upon the earth, sun, moon and stars purpose 
is indelibly written. 

Of course, it must be admitted that man, ham- 
pered by his own ignorance and by stand-pat- 
ters generally, was late in reading nature's law 
of gravitation and likewise late in reading her 
atomic law. It is only a short time ago that man 
learned the function of the heart and the blood, 
and it is only as yesterday that the functions of 
the organs of plants became known to him. But 
his progress during the past 150 years has been 
phenomenal, and his acquaintance with nature's 
laws warrants him in stating without fear of 
successful refutation, that upon everything from 
an insect to a planet is written its purpose. 

Let us examine just a few things and read the 
purposes written upon them. Here is an apple 
seed. I found it in the center or core of an 
apple, protected by little sheaths on all sides. 
As I bit into the core these little sheaths stuck 
between my teeth, causing a slightly disagree- 
able sensation; and the operation of biting was 
halted. 

This seed is pear shaped, and is covered with 
a slippery substance. This slippery substance 



18 Natural Blue Prints 

and this shape make it difficult for my tongue to 
lodge the seed securely so that I can crush it 
between my teeth and destroy it. My inability 
to bite it would move me to spit it upon the 
ground. Its larger and heavier end would strike 
the ground first, and if the ground were soft, 
this larger end would make an impression in it 
and the seed would stand upon this end with the 
point sticking up. The color of a ripe apple 
seed — one that will reproduce its kind — is dark, 
the color of the soil. A real bird's eye view of 
the place where the seed was would not disclose 
much to a bird. Ripe apple seeds were not made 
to be eaten by birds or men. They have little 
food value. They were made to reproduce their 
species. Thus, the purpose of an apple seed is 
written upon it. And we might ask why is the 
apple round? Why not square? Round apples 
when placed in a pile keep in good condition for 
a reasonable length of time, because the air can 
circulate among them. How long do you think 
square apples would keep if placed in a pile with 
their square faces touching? 

Consider the fact that trees grow up and not 
along the ground. Man must have timber, but 
he must have farms also. If all the trees grew 
along the ground, instead of in an upright posi- 
tion, how much room would there be for farms? 
And what of shade for himself and the lower 
animals and weaker plant life, to protect them 
from the scorching rays of the sun ! And what 
beauty of landscape would be lacking! To fur- 



Natural Blue Prints 19 

ther economize space, trees are round, not 
square. 

White pine timber yields an excellent lumber 
for the outside finish of houses. It stands ex- 
posure to the weather admirably. But it has an 
inartistic grain and its use as an inside finish 
for houses is not inviting. On the other hand, 
birch will last scarcely a year when exposed to 
the weather but it has a most beautiful and 
aritstic grain; and when it is used as an inside 
finish for houses or for furniture, it is at its best. 
It not only presents a most beautiful grain that 
will take an exceedingly high finish, but it will 
last for many years. If elm is used for building, 
it will warp and twist so that no amount of nail- 
ing will hold it in place. But it is wonderfully 
adapted for use as barrel timber and for the 
felloes of wagon wheels. So we may go from 
one kind of timber to another, and upon each 
will be found written its purpose. 

Is it not remarkable that of all the metals, 
iron, bismuth and cadmium only, swell when 
cooling from a molten state? How would the 
molder fill the interstices of his mold and bring 
out the design of the pattern from which he 
works, if iron shrunk while it cools as do other 
metals? And what could be more suggestive of 
design in this regard than that iron, the most 
useful and mostly used metal, should be most 
abundant and most accessible? And again, it, 
in common with all other metals, is neither too 
soft nor too refractory for man's use but in 



20 Natural Blue Prints 

every way is suited to his powers of elaboration. 

In the building arts, more .than timber and 
iron are necessary. Stone was to hold a con- 
spicuous place and especially artificial stone. 
And man is enabled, by the simplest of pro- 
cesses, to create this so-called artificial stone 
and to mold it to designs that suit his pleasure 
and his needs. By simply heating lime 
rock until the water of crystallization is driven 
off, it is easily reduced to powder. While in this 
powdered condition, sand or gravel and water 
may be mixed with it ; and thus re-supplied with 
wa.ter for crystallization it will re-set and form 
an enduring stone of the whole mass. No one 
conversant with the facts will deny the claim 
that purpose is thus written upon limestone. 
This is equally true of gypsum rock and of many 
other cementitious minerals. 

But let us for a few minutes, concern our- 
selves with the abuses rather than the uses of 
things .that have played an important part in 
human destiny. For proper use of things, that 
is, use according to purpose impressed upon 
them, is full of beneficence; while misuse, that 
is, use not according to purpose impressed upon 
them, is abuse and sin. Such misuse is fraught 
with dire consequences to the misuser. Virtue is 
proper use and sin is the misuse of .things. 

A few years ago a committee composed of 
United States Senators listened to the testimony 
of upwards of five hundred manufacturers of the 
United States, to .the effect that grain alcohol 



Natural Blue Friats 21 

was necessary in their arts. Over 1,500 uses of 
this commodity were testified to by these men. 
They, with one accord, stated that its use was 
indispensable and .that the manufacturers' tax 
should be taken off it so that they could obtain 
it at a less cost than they were then compelled to 
pay for it. But not one of them testified that it 
was necessary as a beverage. Presumably, these 
men kept their stocks of alcohol in glass, earth- 
en or metal containers, because of its corrosive 
action upon animal tissues. Do you think that 
these men transcended the Creator in wisdom in 
this regard? Would He not have provided men 
with glass stomachs if He had intended them as 
alcohol containers? This "keep-me-warm-keep-me- 
cool" panacea for all ills is a boon to humanity, 
but its misuse has literally staggered mankind. 
Thus do the blue prints appear upon alcohol. 

Tobacco is useful as a poultice, insecticide, 
errhine and as a germicide. In fact, blue prints 
are written all over the tobacco leaf. But there 
is no indication, that it was intended that to- 
bacco should be smoked or chewed by men. 
Numberless experiences and experiments have 
proved this to be true. However, there are those 
who sincerely believe that its use in smoking 
pipes, etc., is beneficial. So just here let me say 
that in reading nature we may not always read 
aright since systematic inquiry is in its infancy. 
But our mistakes will be corrected by our suc- 
cessors and theirs by those who follow them. 
The chief consideration, at this time, is the 



Natural Blue Prints 



recognition of the law that upon everything is 
written its purpose. 

What blessings have followed the use of opium 
and its derivatives! and likewise .those of the 
betel nut, hashheesh and cocaine! How useful 
all of them have been in producing general and 
local anesthesia! The blessings following their 
proper use are equaled only by the curse follow- 
ing their misuse by drug fiends of the orient and 
the Occident. Surely here again we find purpose 
written in unmistakable language. 

In turning to the earth we find it spherical in 
form ever acting as a press of varying powers, a 
perfect contrivance for preparing inorganic 
materials for the elaboration of man. 

When those materials are ready for him they 
are raised to points upon or near the surface 
within his reach by means of a caloric engine, 
evidences of the workings of which are called 
earthquakes and volcanoes. Thus these phenom- 
ena are signs of internal operations of this great 
factory and testify to its youth and virility; 
they are by no means omens of senility and de- 
cay. Matter is being constantly prepared for 
and placed within the reach of the mechanics 
who are to further elaborate it; hence the testi- 
mony of seismographs in all parts of the world 
that the earth is constantly quaking. 

But let any one in whose mind this question 
has not arisen ask himself : "For what was this 
mass of materials made? To what uses was man 
to put them? or has he to do anything with 



Natural Blue Prints 23 

them?" No other animal has uses for timber 
and coal and clay, sands and metals. Were they 
placed here to serve no purpose whatsoever? 
Note further that only its skin-like surface can 
be used as a theater for his own work and for 
the raising of foods. Nearly the whole of it, 
is mineral matter. It was not intended that it 
should be a mere pantry or victualing institution. 
The elaboration of inorganic materials found in 
and upon the earth is man's chief duty. The 
earth is full Qf them. In the storage of them we 
find that they are not indiscriminately mixed to- 
gether. Between each bed of coal and sand and 
clay is a platen of rock to keep .them 
separate. As a rule, the lower matter is located 
in the earth the harder and more adhesive it 
becomes. So far as we know, granite, the hard- 
est rock, is found at the bottom. When the 
materials above it are ready for further elabora- 
tion, this rock, the strongest of all rocks, acting 
like the piston of an engine, receives the impact 
from the upheaving force and bears all superin- 
cumbent materials to points upon or near the 
surface. Thus this internal caloric engine does 
its work of elevating. This is a thoroughly 
mechanical and practical arrangement. For if 
a soft material were at the bottom the upheav- 
ing force would tear through and render all a 
confused and disordered mass. Suppose one of 
these forces only were exerted upon matter, it 



24 Natural Blue Prints 

would on the one hand be squeezed to incalcul- 
able hardness or on the other hand it would ex- 
pand into a gaseous sphere, the outer edges of 
which would reach beyond our most outlying 
planet. 

But all material is not mineral or vegetable or 
animal; all are found in abundance. Any one, 
or any two of them would not suffice for the 1 
needs of a general factory. And while heavy in- 
organic matter, iron, for instance, usually is 
found adjacent to coal for melting it and lime- 
stone for a flux, so that it can be elaborated upon 
the spot and products only of it transported, we 
find that many places do not abound in iron. 
But these other places furnish other commodities 
lacking but needed in the former. Thus .the dis- 
tribution of the raw material upon the face of 
the earth suggests a plan of exchange of com- 
modities. And in this connection it is interest- 
ing to note .the system of water-courses upon the 
earth, the rivers and oceans, upon which man 
can so easily find his way. Intercourse among 
the peoples of the earth is apparently a part 
and parcel of the great design of the Creator. 

We find beds of sand, gravel and clay ; we find 
rock in enormous masses from which man can 
blast off pieces of any required size ; but metals 
are not found in masses in their pure state. 
Iron, for instance, is found as an ore, that is, 
mixed with other elements that assist man in 
its elaboration. What could man do with a 
large body of pure iron? If it were not found 



Natural Blue Prints 25 

impossible to use it at all, .the time spent in 
chiselling it or drilling holes in it so that it 
could be blasted, would render its use prohib- 
itive. Metals are found as ores upon the surface 
of the earth or embedded in rocks, in thin 
streaks or veins. No means has yet been found 
to make use of the masses of pure 
copper sometimes found upon the shores of Lake 
Superior. 

In the elaboration of this matter power is 
necessary; and has man the power in himself, 
or at his disposal? Undoubtedly! We find him 
equipped with physical strength; which was all 
he used in his earliest days upon this earth. 
Later we find him using animal power, then 
windmills, steam, electricity and gasoline power. 
But think of the almost incalculable power to 
be had from the water falls upon the face of the 
earth. 

Men do not erect costly factories to abandon 
them before even the stock on hand is worked 
up. This earth is no temporary structure or 
working shed. It has cost too much, its foun- 
dations are too solid, its stock of unwrought 
materials is to great, and its forces too youthful 
and virile to admit of the conclusion that it is, 
as some think, in the last stages of decay and 
about .to be destroyed. 

This earth is not a mere stopping place for a 
few weary nights and days while on some inde- 
finite spiritual journey from somewhere to some- 
where in the sweet bye and bye, as ecclesiastics 
would have us believe. It is our home; and 



26 Natural Blue Prints 

every feature proclaims it a factory home, 
heated, lighted and ventilated and stored with 
raw materials awaiting our elaboration. And 
that other planets also are factories is evidenced 
by the aerolites that fall upon the earth. In 
every way they correspond to matter on this 
globe. The iron in them melts at the same tem- 
perature as does iron on this planet; the metal- 
lic alloys found in them are the same as those 
upon this earth ; and the quantity of iron found 
in them is in excess of all other metals in about 
the proportion that it exceeds other metals on 
this sphere. 

Nature, proclaims the universe an infinite 
series of manufactories, and proclaims the Crea- 
tor to be, so to speak, a hard-headed, practical 
and tender-hearted mechanic. 

But a factory, never so well equipped with 
raw materials and power, would be useless 
without operatives to furnish the hand labor 
and the brains, to direct the manufacturing. 
And so we find it ; this earth is a great general 
factory and man is the operative. No other 
creatures upon it care about the greater part of 
it nor have use for it. What use have they for 
iron or coal or oil or timber or navigable bodies 
of water, or systems of water-courses? That 
man is the intended operative is evident from his 
instincts. Nate how mere boys delight to make 
wagons and toys and ride horses and are deeply 
impressed by the exhibition of mechanical power. 
When still young, the spirit of wanderlust 



Natural Blue Prints 27 

seizes most of them. How would the different 
departments of this great factory be inhabited 
by mankind, but for this desire implanted in 
youth to travel to distant parts and see and do? 
And while boys are running away from home or 
making mechanical toys, in imitation of the 
larger instruments of manufacture used by their 
elders, the girls are nursing dolls in the develop- 
ment of the maternal instinct that is to keep the 
factory perpetually supplied with mechanics. 
Again, it is worthy of note ♦that even man's lof- 
tiest and most ideal conceptions are expressed 
in mechanical terms. Even his most beautiful 
hymns are couched in mechanical phrases, for 
instance, 'How firm a foundation/' "Nearer My 
God to Thee/ "Let the Lower Lights be Burn- 
ing/' "Lead Kindly Light.' 

But in nature's limited elaboration of mat- 
ter, coinciding so perfectly as it does with the 
design of making man a workman in it, there is 
much that is pregnant with meaning. Nature 
has brought it to a certain state of elaboration 
and then stopped, because at those points his 
efforts were to begin. All things necessary for 
him above his capacity or powers to produce 
were provided, but unwrought or partially 
wrought materials were given him because the 
ability to mould them to his wants and wishes 
was imparted. Had it been otherwise, metals 
had certainly been dug up in the forms of ne- 
cessary instruments, vegetable fibre had grown 
in woven garments, glass and stoneware had 



28 Natural Blue Prints 

been quarried, and boulders had been cubes 
ready for the builders' hands; while joists and 
boards and furniture had been the natural fruit 
of trees. No fact is more prominent in nature 
than that man was to have nothing — absolutely 
nothing — done for him that he could possibly 
do for himself. This was essential to the devel- 
opment of his character as an artificer. By it 
exertion became inevitable, while the direction 
it was to take was not to be mistaken. Nature 
has provided man with coal, but he must dig it. 
She has provided him with metals but he must 
mine, smelt and refine them. She has given him 
trees but he must fell them and saw them into 
lumber. He has been given wheat, but he must 
sow it, garner his crop and prepare it for his 
pantry. Many think that man cannot touch 
the works of nature without marring them, but 
the truth is that nothing in nature in the way 
of man's necessities, falls into his mouth. Every- 
thing necessary for him is .the subject of work, 
elaboration and improvement. 

Born in this factory with the instincts of a 
mechanic, brought up in it, confined for life to 
it — a true factory child — what else should he do 
than imitate the great artificer by thinking 
His thoughts after him, reading His blue prints? 

Let us now turn to man himself and see if his 
form and structure do not indicate the nature 
and purpose of his being. Other animals need 
their limbs for locomotive purposes while he has 
two hanging from his shoulders that are not 
thus called upon. These arms and hands spe- 



Natural Blue Prints 29 

cifically proclaim him an artisan. Note the 
termination of his hands in his fingers, and the 
apposition between his thumbs and his fingers. 
These thumbs are in utility, second hands. Were 
it not for them man had been a failure as an 
elaborator of matter. His nearest analogue, the 
monkey, has rudimentary thumbs but they are 
located high up on his writs and between them 
and his fingers there is no apposition. There- 
fore, the monkey can have no more control over 
matter with his hands than can a man who has 
his thumbs cut off. Note again that a man has 
heels and can sustain himself in an erect posi- 
tion. Monkeys cannot do this. This circum- 
stance together with a great variety of others 
proclaim man the lord of creation. As no gen- 
eral factory can be carried on without a di- 
versity of operations, requiring a diversity of 
talents, we find mankind fully equipped, and 
equal to the task, in this regard. No two men 
are of the same mental calibre. And further- 
more, in a general factory of uneven tempera- 
ture upon its surface, operatives capable of sur- 
viving under those various temperatures are 
necessary. So we find the lighter and fairer 
races in the northerly sections of this factory and 
with hair upon their heads that lies compactly 
togeather. Their light complections furnish pro- 
tection from the cold. White absorbs heat while 
dark colors radiate it. 

All nature in the Northern climes is, in 
winter, slumbering under a mantle of snow, or 



30 Natural Blue Prints 

dressed in a white fur coat or enjoying a warm 
light complexion, while in the warmer climes 
we find her in darker hues. The factory 
operatives of the South with dark complexions 
are in turn protected from the rays of the .trop- 
ical sun. They have not closely matted hair 
upon their heads, but as their crowning glory 
we see them decorated with black kinky wool. 
Wool is a non-conductor of heat and the kinki- 
ness of that upon their heads permits a free cir- 
culation of air, while their dark skins radiate 
and throw off the heat. 

And what is more significant than the fact 
that no means are provided for laying up a 
stock of goods for future generations. Each 
generation must labor for itself. If bees, for 
example,could lay up a store of honey sufficient 
to supply their young through life so that no 
labor upon their part were necessary, the spe- 
cies would become extinct. This is true of man- 
kind also. 

The working blue prints for man's direction 
were prepared when the factory was being built, 
long before his advent into it, and he is but a 
complement of those previously made plans. 
Laws for his government having been made, no 
need exists for his making any, ard therefore 
to him was not imparted the ability to make 
them; hence his pitiful failure in this regard. 

Everything is in keeping with the idea that 
this earth is a general factory, heated, lighted, 
ventilated and stored with the raw materials 



Natural Blue Prints 31 

awaiting man's elaboration, with blue prints at 
hand which he is able to decipher. By no stretch 
of imagination can this earth be viewed as a 
court for lawyers, a Congress for so-called law 
makers, a parlor for idlers and people of fashion, 
a bank within which men are to paw over* 
money, or a theatre for war. It is surely an in- 
sane idea that prompts men to view the deposits 
of natural wealth as belonging to a man or 
company of men. Cooperative ownership and 
cooperative effort are everywhere pro- 
claimed. 

The oil monopoly can with as good a show of 
justice claim all the fish of the sea whose oil, 
at some future time, will be pumped to the 
surface as petroleum, as claim the stock of oil 
now in the terrestrial tanks. 

The coal and metal monopolies may with as 
good a showing of justice claim all the coal and 
metal now in the making in the earth's alembic 
and also pre-empt the caloric engines used to 
raise them to the surface whose noisy operations 
we call earthquakes, as to claim the coal and 
iron already in the vaults of the earth. 

But why should they not do something 
worthy of their powers of "seeing first?" Why 
not claim the sun to the warmth of whose rays 
oil and coal alike, are due? 

Alas! Nothing is perfect and we find the 
monopolists, as all others suffering from lack of 
"vision" or possessing it lacking the courage of 
their convictions. 



32 Natural Blue Prints 

publicly owned and operated utilities, post- 
office systems, police systems, public schools, 
fraternal societies, insurance companies, 
trade-unions all proclaim .that the instinct of 
brotherhood is within man. His real difficulty is 
not in recognizing brotherhood as a thing to be 
desired but in defining brotherhood and working 
it out in practice. Natural law supplies 
both answers. It is hard indeed to define a bro- 
therhood that is both competitive and co- 
operative. 

All civilization and degrees thereof, from that 
of the savage to that of the most highly devel- 
oped of mankind, is written in elaborated mat- 
ter. The stone axe of the man of the stone age 
proclaims his knowledge of the elaboration of 
matter, his standard of civilization; while the 
steam engine, the wireless telegraph, the electric 
motor and a thousand other things bespeak the 
standard of civilization of a large part of man- 
kind today; and if we were to ask the veriest 
stand-patter or conservative, for evidence of 
man's advancement from a savage to an enlight- 
ened state, would he recite the Apostles Creed? 
Or would he call attention to these same en- 
gines, telegraphs and motors? If some power 
were to lift from the planet all the elaborated 
matter upon it and take away from man the 
knowledge of elaborating it, leaving only the 
Apostles' Creed for his use, delectation and de- 
light, how far back in the scale of actual devel- 
opment would man be placed? 



Natural Blue Prints 33 

There is one other circumstance concerning 
matter that is worthy of consideration at this 
point. The concensus of opinion of the leading 
scientists of the earth, notably that of Sir Oliver 
Lodge, is that the ultimate unit of so-called mat- 
ter is not matter at all; that electrons or units 
of force, are the ultimate unit, and that these 
vibrate so rapidly that they, in great numbers, 
take upon themselves mass or form. At this 
point scientists hesitate, but are almost ready 
to declare that this ultimate force is spiritual 
force. Must we stop here and leave it an un- 
solved conundrum? Do the last rays of the 
light which we have spend themselves here? 
No! There stands just here, where material 
and spiritual seem to meet, a great beacon of 
light. Jesus, the greatest seer that ever lived, 
speaking for his entire self, material and spir- 
itual, said "I, a man, and my Father are one." 
Thus do we see that the whole is spiritual. 
Whatever there may be to distinguish electrons 
— those ultimate units of force that we call mat- 
ter or say, congealed spirit — from pure spirit, 
it is true that pure spirit wells up within us 
and "renews our strength like the eagle's," 
when we seek, ask and knock, for it. While this 
seeking, asking and knocking for spiritual 
strength are as imperative as is effort generally 
in this factory, it is true that no man ever did 
or ever can seek, ask and knock, that is, sin- 
cerely invoke the aid of the spirit without re- 
ceiving the evidence of it at once and without 



34 Natural Blue Prints 

any previous preparation or probation. The 
earnest desire and the seeking, asking and 
knocking are the open sesame of the spirit. 

It is worthy of note that this spiritual force 
manifests itself in the shape of vibrations, seem- 
ingly emanating from the spinal column and 
radiating over the entire anatomy. Vibration 
seems to hold a very important position in the 
so-called material and spiritual economy of the 
universe. As an illustration of -the adjacency of 
the spirit to mankind I call your atten- 
tion to the water-works of this city which 
exerts a substantially equal pressure upon 
all the water pipes of .this city. When 
you are about to water your lawn you at- 
tach your hose and make very sure that 
there are no kinks in it to prevent the flow 
of water. Kinks in the hose prevent .the flow, 
the outer end remains unfilled and flabby, 
so to speak, and the grass receives no 
blessing. So it is with us. If we surrender our- 
selves by placing ourselves in line with the flow 
of the spirit, removing the kinks, we and all 
about us are abundantly blessed by the presence 
and the flow of the spirit. Viewing the fountain 
and the flow of the spirit in this way, and after 
trial knowing full well what a source of strength 
it is, how sad it is to see myriads of people at- 
tempting to draw spiritual strength from what 
is in reality, a mere deduction. Orthodox 
Christians go through a mental performance or 
deduction such as the following: Christ was 
divine, therefore all powerful, all wise and 



Natural Blue Priuts 35 

beneficent; therefore he will, knowing my 
needs, supply them; therefore I will ask him 
to do so. There is no more strength in this de- 
duction than there is in the multiplication tableThe 
Jews have transcended all other races in the pro- 
duction of geniuses,f or the reason that for centuries 
they have had their spiritual lips pressed against 
the real spiritual fountain, this fountain of 
strength. The greatest emphasis has been 
placed by them upon At-One-Ment with the 
Spirit. They will have nothing to do with the 
doctrine of Atonement. To them religious ex- 
ercises are feasts at this source of strength; 
and they have grown strong, while other races 
have, as a rule remained spiritually anaemic, 
never having had anything to suckle but some- 
thing akin to the multiplication table. The 
Spirit is an actual source of power, not an ab- 
straction. There are few stand-patters among 
the Jews. In passing it may be well to call your 
attention to .the fact that this same spiritual 
power widened and deepened their patriotism 
into humanitarianism. They lost for all time 
national cohesiveness and gained true spiritual- 
ity. As a race, they do not desire a country of 
their own and in fact never can shrink their 
humanitarianism back into patriotism. This is 
true of liberals generally. 

Again, since this is a general factory in which 
man is to work with his hands and brain, in co- 
operation, how sad it is to see monks and the 



36 Natural Blue Prints 

like perched high up on barren cliffs, spending 
their time as far away from the workshop as 
possibl , imtued with an idea that all earthly 
things are filthy and therefore not deigning to 
take part in the predestined work of man. What 
shall we say of these poor deluded living spooks' 
who are in the world but not of it? And what 
could be sadder .than to view the Brahman and 
the Hindoo torturing and mortifying his flesh 
in his attempts to rid himself of his body and 
thus find Nirvanna by crawling out of this work- 
shop back into the spiritual womb? How in- 
sane are all these ideas of asceticism and set- 
apartness! And what is true of these men is 
equally true of all other men who neglect and 
refuse to actually labor co-operatively with their 
hands and brain, whether they be kings, priests, 
lawyers, statesmen, people of fashion and idle- 
ness, or soldiers. Not one of them is in line 
with the spirit. They, and most o.thers, have 
kinks in them that prevent the flow of the 
spirit and prevent them from reading the 
the spiritual or natural blue prints, without 1 
which life is largely an exercise in foolishness. 

I wish you to contemplate mankind thus 
drinking the spirit so that his strength is re- 
newed like the eagle's, reading the blue prints 
and working according to them, with no thought 
of storing up money! Man's full duty to him- 
self and to the beneficent spirit is comprised in) 
thus Drinking, Reading and Working. Who 
will attempt to picture the happy condition of 



Natural Blue Prints & 

humanity that will follow the promulgation of 
this law; "Upon everything is written its pur- 
pose." Man has, so to speak, put the heavens in 
order ; he has, so to speak, put things in order ; 
now, let him put himself in order. 

In this law is scientific truth, pure religion, 
pure democracy, justice and brotherhood. In 
its light all are found to be one and the same 
thing. And man needs only to "strike the 
rock" for it to gush for.th and deluge him with 
beneficence. 

The automobile, is a means whereby many who 
previously never gave the subject a thought, are 
becoming interested in man's chief occupation 
upon this earth, mechanics. The general ad- 
vent of machinery in great volume presages 
much that is good for man in that it interests 
him in the great subject at hand — is getting him 
on the right track. Let him become triumph- 
antly conscious of the fact that he is getting upon 
the right track! 

It must not be denied that abstract laws, 
creeds and dogmas have served .their purpose. 
It must be admitted that there are many minds 
that require, for their control, iron-clad regula- 
tions or dogmatic statements. It must be borne 
in mind also that ecclesiasticism and stand- 
patism generally are not to be criticized too se- 
verely. These stand-patters feed on ignorance 
with which mankind generally is abundantly 
supplied. Ecclesiasticism and governments 
generally merely reflect the minds of the people, 



38 Natural Blue Prints 

and are their creatures. 

Let us not be dismayed because we cannot see 
the great final purpose of all *that is. It may be 
that the pleasure which Mother Spirit takes in 
the act of expression accounts for all. But a 
tea cup cannot hold the ocean, much less can the 
finite mind of man comprehend the Infinite. It 
is manifestly nonsense to try to do so. We are 
limited in every way. Upon every side we run 
against "stone walls/' so to speak, past which 
we cannot go. We cannot ascend more than 
about 20 miles on account of the cold and the 
rarity of the air. We cannot descend more than 
about 2 miles on account of the internal heat of 
the earth. Our sphere of activity is, practically, 
on the surface of the earth. So it is with our 
mental life. For here again we are limited. 
We cannot ascend or descend very far. We 
have, it is true, dug deep enough so that at last 
we realize that all is spiritual. Farther than 
that our most daring spiritual scout, Jesus, has 
not gone. But we have within these limitations, 
or rather what appear now to be limitations, a 
vast field for living. There can be no just cause 
for complaint upon this score. We are, as it? 
were, upon an island that has emerged above the 
surface of the seemingly limitless spiritual sea. 
From this vantage ground we can look about, 
us and abroad and infer from what we learn by 
our observations the probable character of 
that part of the infinite that does not come 
within our range of vision. Let us not com- 



Natural Blue Prints 39 

plain, we have ample room for all healthful 
work, love, play and worship, the things that 
men live by. But to work right, to play right, 
to love right and to worship right we must Drink 
of the Spiritual power, Bead the blue prints and 
Work according to them. 

Civilization is built around the scientific 
labor of a few men. Jesus, Galileo, Copernicus, 
Kepler, Newton, Stephenson, Thomas Paine, 
Dalton Lavosier, Ericcson, Field, Darwin, 
Priestly, Liebig, Bell, Koch, Pasteur, Lodge, 
Crookes and Edison stand out prominently 
among this number. And what are scientists? 
Scientists are readers of Nature's blue prints. 
These men read nature for themselves and then 
read it into civilization, thereby uplifting it. 
They are the real princes of God's kingdom on 
this ear.th. 

The sciences have been, almost to the pres- 
ent time, like little insolated hillocks dotting 
the surface of human research. The underlying 
truth to which all are tributary has been seen 
clearly only of late. Each science **ests upon ob- 
servations from which are induced its general 
truth; and these sciences in turn form the 
grander observations from which is made the 
grander induction that points to the homogenei- 
ty of the whole and to the almost bewildering 
beneficence and wisdom of .the great spirit that 
underlies all. 



40 Natural Blue Prints 

Over this scientific course, piloted by Jesus, 
Lodge and others we may find our way to the 
very fountain of Spirit, against which we 
need only sincerely press our spiritual lips, open 
our natures and ask, in order to have a real 
spiritual experience and have our strength "re- 
newed like the eagles" as was that of the pro- 
phets of old. 

This is the way over which the Jews groped 
their way in the long ago. Then it was a mere 
blazed trail. But "narrow is the way" cannot 
longer be said of this road to the spiritual foun- 
tain. These princes of God's kingdom on this 
earth, have broadened and beautified this trail 
into a passable road that eventually will be- 
come a great highway— a boulevarde— a pleasant 
way along which all mankind will travel ea- 
gerly. 

These natural blue prints are the funda- 
mentals of individual, na.tional and interna- 
tional peace, plenty and happiness. They are, 
at once, the definition and modus operandi of 
brotherhood and humanity. 

The hope for the future lies in our children. 
Their minds are plastic and impressible. To do 
the greatest good possible in the shortest time, 
it is our plain duty to make the study of the 
natural sciences and particularly the philoso- 
phy of these sciences, a hard and fast part of the 
curriculums of our schools. The homo- 
geneity of the whole will testify to their minds 
of the wisdom and beneficence of the spirit. 
They will learn to Work and Read and Drink of 



Natural Blue Prints 41 

the spirit cheerfully and with avidity. In time 
the whole mass of humanity will oe leavened in 
this way, and the monotonous rythmic routine 
of life, that spells drudgery, will be supplanted 
by a healthy staccato of individual initiative. 

Among the various systems of government we 
see Anarchy (from two Greek words, an, mean- 
ing no, and arche, meaning head) upon one ex- 
treme and despotic monarchies (all head) upon 
the other. Our government is neither one nor 
the other, but a compromise between .the two. 
It is better than a despotic monarchy and mon- 
archies in general, because our forefathers, guid- 
ed largely by Thomas Paine, wove into its warp 
a good deal of the woof of nature. In judging 
governments and civilizations .this is the test: 
How much of the woof of Nature has been woven 
into their warp? 

Nothing has ever lifted humanity but Nature. 
Nothing has ever degraded mankind but "un- 
nature." 

The 64,000 man made abstractions called laws, 
passed by the legislative bodies of this country 
in the last 15 years do not promise much in the 
way of human uplift. 

Our legislators and statesmen are mere child- 
ren. The real men of the world are the scien- 
tists, teachers and laborers. 

In offering this to you I have attempted to 
reach your heads only — not your hearts. Every 
observation I have made any other person may 
make with vision unclouded by sentiment. It 
remains for you .to garnish them with feeling to 



42 Natural Blue Prints 

your heart's content. 

These views of the natural blue prints, made 
by the head are the stuff our hearts' highest, 
purest and practical ideals are made of. 

Let us become obcessed with nature in all her 
spiritual loveliness and beauty and lay our 
plans accordingly. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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